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[Blu-Ray Review] ‘The Family’ is Luc Besson at his best, a witty and smart film complemented with great performances; Now Available on Blu-Ray Combo Pack & DVD From 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment/Relativity Media

The Manzoni family, a notorious mafia clan, is relocated to Normandy, France under the witness protection program, where fitting in soon becomes challenging as their old habits die hard.

‘The Family’ tells the story of a Mafia family who have ratted out their own and are now holed up in London as part of witness protection. The one thing they need to do is keep a low profile and blend in, but unfortunately for them, they can’t help but revert to solving problems the family way, and soon everything begins to unravel in a unique and hilarious manner.

Luc Besson directed and co-wrote ‘The Family’ which was based off of the novel ‘Malavita’. Besson is certainly in top form here, and both the writing and direction are glorious and play off flawlessly. In addition to Besson’s part behind the camera, the impressive performances from the case really help to make this one truly great film. Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, John D’Leo and Dianna Agron all give spot on and noteworthy performances. This is certainly one movie you are not going to want to miss out on.

Overall: ‘The Family’ is Luc Besson at his best. It’s a witty, smart and funny film that is well written and directed as well as highly complemented by the great performances all around the board. If you are a fan of off-beat comedies, and/or mob style movies (as long as you don’t mind a lack of seriousness to some extent regarding the subject) then you will definitely want to give this one a shot. It unfortunately didn’t really seem to catch much ground at the theaters, so sadly this one probably passed over the radars of many; therefore I am here to suggest that you that you might want to look into it, because you will probably be quite pleased that you decided to do so.

VIDEO:

The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Family’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video is quite impressive on this one. It manages to keep all of the details and edges sharp, while maintaining the films intended tone, which almost feels a little washed out (though it is quite clear this was done intentionally on Besson’s part to fit the tone of the film) and this Blu-Ray does an excellent job of maintaining the movies desired look in addition to providing a sharp and smooth High Definition video presentation throughout.

AUDIO:

The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack which certainly gets a number of moments to shine and show off its stuff, while still keeping all dialogue in the center channel perfectly audible. The more tame scenes provide a perfect level of audio pitch for dialogue, while managing to really rise up in the blink of an eye in certain cut-to moments at random times while maintaining a perfect balance between the ups and downs throughout. This is a very satisfactory lossless 5.1 soundtrack that should leave everyone pleased.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

While the Blu-Ray release of ‘The Family’ is by no means loaded with extras, it does include a couple of fun extras. First off, we are treated to ‘Making The Family’ which fellow fans of Besson’s work will enjoy because it really shows how much this film meant to Besson, and if anything gave me even more appreciation for this wonderful movie. Secondly, we have a special feature titled ‘The Many Meanings of F*#%’ which after viewing the movie will make more sense and guarantee you will almost certainly want to take a peek at this clever and amusing extra.

Film Rating: 8.5/10

Disc Rating: 8/10

‘The Family’ is now available to own on Blu-Ray Combo Pack & DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment & Relativity Media.